Part 1 (1/2)

The Curse of Education

by Harold E Gorst

PREFATORY NOTE

In calling this little book 'The Curse of Education,' I trust that I shall not be e culture The term 'education' is used, for want of a better word, to express the conventionalyouth in this and other civilized countries It is with education syste the mind with facts, and particularly with theevery individual to a coardless of his natural bent, that I have chiefly to find fault At a itated with questions of educational reforht be useful to draw attention to what I believe to be a fact, na education syste itself, as opposed to natural developress that social evolution has ever had to encounter

HAROLD E GORST

LONDON, _April, 1901_

THE CURSE OF EDUCATION

CHAPTER I

FLOURIshi+NG MEDIOCRITY

Hu less the outcome of a natural process of developanized educational plan The average educated man possesses no real individuality He is si the stathe past century almost every civilized country applied itself feverishly to the invention of a national plan of education, with the result that the majority of mankind are coe reat outcry that England is being left behind in this educational race Other nations have got more exact systems Where the British child is only stuffed with six pounds of facts, the German and French schools contrive to cram seven pounds into their pupils Consequently, Ger ahead of us, and unless ish to be beaten in the international race, it is asserted that weour own educational syste more deeply into this vital question, it is just as well to consider what these education systems have really done for mankind

There is a proverb, as excellent as it is ancient, which says that the proof of the pudding is in the eating No doubt learned theoretical treatises upon the scope and ais in their way, but they tell us nothing of the effects of this systee If ish to ascertain thee by results

To begin with, the dearth of great men is so remarkable that it scarcely needs coe of intellectual giants has passed away altogether This is particularly obvious in political life Since the days of Gladstone and Disraeli, Parliamentary debate has sunk to the most hopeless level of mediocrity

The traditions of men such as Pitt, Fox, Palmerston, Peel, and others, sound at the present day aly Yet the supposed benefits of education are not only now free to all, but have been compulsorily conferred upon ues have never succeeded in producing another Bisround away at her educational enerations with the result that the supply of Napoleons has distinctly diminished

Look at the methods by which our public service is recruited

Who are the men to whom the administration of all important departments of Government is entrusted, and how are they selected?

They are si most marks in public competitive examinations--that is to say, men whose brains have been e than were the brains of their unsuccessful competitors

There is no question, when a candidate presents himself for a post in the Diplomatic Service or in one of the Government offices, whether he possesses tact, or ade of the world

All that is demanded of him is that his mind should be crammed with so many pounds avoirdupois of Latin, Greek, raphy, etc, acquired in such a way that he will forget, within a couple of years, every fact that has been pestled into him For every vacancy in the various departments of the Administration there are dozens, or even scores, of applicants; and the candidate selected for the post is the one whose mind has been , and consequently most effectually ruined for all the practical purposes of life

Now, to whatever cause it eneral level throughout the various branches of the public service is one of mediocrity We are not surrounded, faithful and devoted as our public servants are universally adether the other way Great national catastrophes, like the blunders and miscalculations that have characterized the conduct of the war in South Africa, have always resulted inthe inefficiency of more than one important depart since become a public scandal, and if the truth were known about the inner doreat Administrative office, the susceptibilities of the nation would be still further shocked and outraged Fortunately, however--or it may be unfortunately--Government linen is usually washed at hoency that the truth leaks out, to the general consternation

When this does happen there is a great outcry about the inefficiency of this or that branch of the public service The Governitation dies a natural death; and if it is successfully kept up, a sort of pretence at reforiven to old abuses; inco is erected at the public expense

Then all goes on as heretofore

nobody see an inquiry into the constitution of the public service itself But until this is done no real reform of any permanent value can possibly be effected It is not the nomenclature of appointments, the subdivision of departmental work, and such matters of detail, that stand in need of the reformer The titles and duties of the several officials are of secondary importance It is not in them that the evils of bad administration are to be located